1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processors, and particularly to an information processor capable of automatically classifying programs used in numerical controllers connected to the information processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-145641 discloses a system that collects programs used in all numerical controllers connected to a server, and displays a list of the programs on the respective numerical controllers, so that a user can select and execute any one of the programs, as shown in FIG. 10. According to the system, the user can transfer and save programs to the host computer by operating the respective numerical controllers, obtain a list of the saved programs from the host computer to dis lay the list on operating screens of the respective numerical controllers, and move a cursor to select a desired program to be output so as to execute the selected program.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a process in which the user using the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application. Laid-Open No. 2004-145641 searches a desired program from a plurality of programs stored in the host computer.
The user has to sequentially browse the contents of the programs from the top in the list stored in the host computer to select a target program. FIG. 11 shows the case in which the fourth program is the target program and the user can find the program through the four browsing steps. However, as the number of programs stored in the host computer increases, the number of programs that the user has to browse also greatly increases, which may lead to a decrease in operating efficiency. As the number of numerical controllers connected to the host computer increases, the problem of the low operating efficiency is more serious when the programs used in the respective numerical controllers are transferred and stored in the host computer as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-145641.